In Flint Water Disaster Response, Ruffalo is a Bad Actor

EDITORIAL NOTE (8/28/2018): This blog accurately reflects our opinions and thoughts at the time it was written. However, in 2018 Mr. Smith came forward to admit mistakes, correct the scientific record, and improve the understanding and practice of Citizen Science. Given the 2018 mea culpa, we want to note that Flintwaterstudy no longer has residual animus with Mr. Smith, Mr. Ruffalo and/or Water Defense. Identifying and admitting mistakes is one of the most important steps in cultivating the scientist within all of us—we strongly believe in giving people second chances. We also want to acknowledge Mr. Smith and his colleagues, for bravely reporting to the U.S. EPA and State of MI, their discovery of lead sinkers in plumbing of a Flint resident in 2017. This was an undeniable act of scientific integrity that should be applauded. Instead, some individuals persist in personally attacking Mr. Smith and his colleagues for doing the right thing, which we consider to be unfair and unethical.

ORIGINAL PIECE

Mark Ruffalo’s “humanitarian” mission in the Flint MI water crisis, has turned into a B-Movie horror show that might be titled “Sponge Bob Scare Pants.” The Hollywood actor and his pseudoscientist sidekick, came to Flint well after a Federal Emergency was declared, and then announced “breaking news” that residents could not bathe without running a high risk of getting cancer or worse. Ruffalo’s team then cynically offered solutions to the very people they scared with false health claims—proprietary sponges and “solar powered water filtration.”

While we do not fault Ruffalo or Smith for trying to expand use of their sponges to the drinking water arena after years of failing to get traction in oil spills or fracking cleanup, below we openly question the ethics of a product launch in the midst of the Flint Federal Emergency and their marketing tactics. It also strikes us a conflict of interest, to launch their WATERBUG product under the disguise of a “humanitarian” mission and umbrella of a “non-profit” organization — Huffington Post’s Art Delaney has explored these possible conflicts in more detail elsewhere.

Here we are in Flint MI, January 29th 2016. We have checked into a hotel where they told us not to drink the water, but it is ok to bath in. And the question is, if a water is not safe to drink…why…is it safe to bath or shower in? AND THIS IS THE WATER DEFENSE WATERBUG…..

From the start, Water Defense was so confused about what the actual problem with Flint water was, the next day they went to test the Flint River to test for “baseline contamination” using their WATERBUG, not realizing Flint had been off the river water for 3+ months by that point. They then had a problem. Because Flint was now obtaining its water from a very high quality surface water (Lake Huron) which easily meets all Federal Standards for chloroform, disinfection by-products (DBPs) and total trihalomethanes (TTHMs), how can you promote the WATERBUG sponge when Flint has no need for it?

Well, you can claim you discovered an unprecedented health danger that the authorities are probably covering up, and then alert the media. As Smith proclaimed in a Water Defense video:

The untold story and the breaking news today, is the chloroform and trihalomethane ….I have been to 62 disasters, and I have never seen the levels of contamination for chloroform in water like it is here. The ultimate solution here is….to create green jobs, to create solar powered water filtration…and help the economy in the process. Chloroform goes through your skin….As part of 62 disasters, I have tested bathtubs and showers all over the country, and most of the time there is nothing there.

Now how, exactly, can you detect the unprecedented chloroform and other dangers supposedly lurking in the water that Flint is purchasing from Detroit? According to Water Defense, you cannot detect these dangers using EPA approved, or any other state of the art analytical protocols that have been developed by scientists who have devoted their lives to the studying the problem. Nope. To detect the danger posed by bath/shower water in Flint homes, you have to toss a Water Defense WATERBUG sponge into your tub.

But Wait, That is Not All…Act Today And You Can Also Sell Them Filters

We then uncovered an “investor pitch deck” for Aquaflex™ online, that lays out a cynical business strategy using the Flint (and other) disasters for self-serving opportunism by exploiting the fears of consumers. Under Business Model, it identified its initial strategy to sell filters because:

Aquaflex is positioned to satisfy unmet needs for a water testing, filtration and remediation systems, as Mr. Smith and Water Defense continue to identify and diagnose water contamination sites.

Go figure. There is a method to the Water Defense madness after all. The business model is certainly innovative, but you will have to judge for yourself whether it is ethical.

But WATER DEFENSE Cannot Defend Claims Of Unprecedented Health Dangers in Flint

We requested that Dr. Zelikoff indicate with a simple “Yes” or “No,” as to which of the false Water Defense health claims she would go on record supporting. Zelkoff refused to answer. Instead, she forwarded our request to “our attorney at NYU for his opinion.” Although Dr. Zelkoff (or her lawyer) refuse to go on record about the false claims Water Defense has implied that she supports, some reporters have checked with real scientists who would know. Stanford’s Dr. Richard Luthy and UMASS’s Dr. David Reckhow have refuted Water Defense claims.

Acting has sort of become my day job now, sadly. It’s what I do to support all this other stuff. Why are we living in a modern society where we don’t trust the water that’s coming out of our tap? We shouldn’t be in that position.

In other words, brace yourself, because a Water Defense WATERBUG and solar powered Aquaflex™ filters may soon be coming to a bathroom near you— whether you need them or not.

Flint Does Not Need Ruffalo’s WATERBUG Sponges or the Aquaflex™ Filters

The Ruffalo Water Defense effort in Flint makes snake oil salesmen look ethical by comparison—at least snake oil offers a placebo effect, and would not cause people to stop bathing for no good reason. Today, after months of fear mongering about dangerous showers in Flint, the associated spike in disease possibly associated with resulting poor hygiene from consumers listening to their claims, and getting called out by FlintWaterStudy Water Defense now claims to HuffPost:

Water Defense has never claimed that Flint water has worse DBP levels than other cities. Water Defense has not tested other cities for DBP.

….the breaking news today, is the chloroform and trihalomethane ….I have been to 62 disasters, and I have never seen the levels of contamination for chloroform in water like it is here. ….As part of my 62 disasters, I have tested bathtubs and showers all over the country, and most of the time there is nothing there. ..To put it in context <I tested> fracking contaminated waters in Pennsylvania..I found 27 ppb of toluene….and the state agencies were freaking out. <In Flint> we are talking at Harold Harrington’s house …900 PARTS PER BILLION OF DICHLOROBENZENE ..At a hotel 150 ppb methlylene chloride….I am putting this in context. At Water Defense ..data that is irrefutable.

Water Defense should have pursued conventional product development and marketing strategy that first tested their ideas in a laboratory, followed by product approval, vetting and certification through established organizations such as the National Sanitation Foundation (NSF). While that would take years of effort, at least it would not endanger the public in the process, or sucker gullible media into untold free advertising for the actor’s product rollout disguised as News.

Ruffalo’s “Sponge Bob Scare Pants” routine might be comedic, if the Flint tragedy were fictional and real people were not getting hurt from the misinformation—pseudoscientists should not be masquerading as real scientists during a Federal Emergency to hustle untested products. This horror show, featuring Ruffalo as the real world villain, cannot end soon enough for us.

3 thoughts on “In Flint Water Disaster Response, Ruffalo is a Bad Actor”

Raffalo is not the only actor pushing the panic button in the Flint case, what was caused but the switch-over of water supply. What is sad that nobody is mentioning the fact that the Flint River is still polluted, because upstream cities not only use the river as urinals (the result of EPA ignoring this waste because of a faulty test, wp.me/p5COh-25), but probably still unnecessary cholinate their ‘treated’ sewage, resulting in DBP’s. A requirement dropped by EPA in 1978 on a natuonal level, but left it up to individual states to either drop it or maintain it. Sadly maintained by most state.

If our state were truly involved in the Flint situation, wouldn’t Attorney Bill Schuette, with help from responsible scientists in the DEQ (I believe there are still some good folks working there), investigate these false claims (lies) and put them behind bars? Sadly, State Government has been so weakened that it can no longer protect its people through formerly sturdy enforcement mechanisms. Taxpayers are already having to pay extra to fund investigations of what the Governor and others did 2014-15. No money or time or staff left to protect us in 2016 from those dangerous fraudsters!

Unfortunately, there are always people who look to profit from disaster situations. They are there because there are people who want an Easy Button to solve those solutions. We in the Flint area have a front row seat to activity. There is no easy solution to what has happened, and continues to happen in Flint and many other cities in the United States. Our government says they have an open book policy, but we all know that we only get to see what they want us to see. How hard it is to get reliable information on current and past water treatment as a citizen is the perfect example of this. When ever you ask questions, you are told what they think you want to hear, not the full truth. Maybe we need to wash some of our current government officials down the river along with the rest of the poison.

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